Playing on Fear and Fun, Hospitals Follow Pharma in Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

November 21, 2018

(Kaiser Health News) – Is this a dystopian video game? Gritty drama? Neither. It is a commercial for the living-donor liver transplant center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, an academic hospital embroiled in a high-profile battle with the region’s dominant health plan and now making a play to a national audience. Hospitals are using TV spots like this one to attract lucrative patients into their hospitals as health care costs and industry competition escalate.